november

okay, i admit it, i am super spoiled with having my mom here to watch our kids now and then. it's not babysitting, it's grandparenting! here they were making cake pops, one of the many activities that mom did with them that day! trevor and i were at a meeting in pleasanton with the other guys from his office and their wives. it was an awesome meeting. i'm so proud of my husband and the great work he does for families' financial futures! and we even got to go to lunch afterwards with two other couples without any kids along. it was so fun. i could barely contain my giddyness. 

every year when i do my photo calendars, the hardest month for pictures is november. i just don't take that many! june is also hard, though i usually cheat and use pictures from other months. but you can't do that with november! now, i still took some pictures, but they were more fun than calendar-worthy. 

here is shelby "winking" she told me "i'm super good at winking mom, watch" 

looks like hard work! 

here is cora on the first day she started facing forward! i miss the baby seat when she falls asleep, but it was time. the new guidelines do say age 2, but i talked with our friend sherman the fireman and he gave me the okay. :) i would have done it anyway though. she was so tired of looking at the seat! 

such a happy girl now. 

a little "ring around the rosie" before sacrament meeting? why not! we're early anyway! 

the play room is still a work in progress. 

once we get through Christmas and i sort through new toys, then i will really get it together. 

my heart skips a beat every time i think about how we now have a room just for toys. joy! 

cora LOVES walking around in everyone else's shoes. especially heels. i think it's a sign that she will be very compassionate and be able to see things from other's perspective...or maybe she just loves shoes. 

this one sure loves her room. other than sleeping, her room is the place for dressing up!

 it's a daily activity. 

what turns her frown upside down? a little glimpse of herself in the iphone. 

cora wanted to move into pb kids. 

shelby too. girls, we all do. 

new kids shoes from nordstrom+balloons+eating at the nordstrom cafe with grandma? 

heaven on earth. 

yawn. when is bedtime again? 

after a playdate with shelby's best friend cara and her mom, (clearly we both have great taste in names)  one of cora's boots was nowhere to be found. i looked everywhere, but shelby was the one who finally found it stuffed in that castle! kids. 

we are regulars at our new ward's thursday mother's group. 

this was the last time we had it at the park this year. 

can you spot the little pink 4 year old coming at you? 

ready to go! 

helloooo. our routine is mother's group, then drive through and get inn-n-out,

and then home to play the rest of the day! 

rapunzel rapunzel, let down your hair!

welcome to shelby's puppet show! 

"now sit down, be quiet, and listen, and no talking, ever, and just look at me mom."

BRAVO! BRAVO! so cute. 

little one needs attention now! she LOVES when there is an empty basket or bin. she sits right down and asks "choo choo? choo choo?" then shelby and i take turns pushing her around the house. 

somebody is enjoying her new pink puffy coat! 

i love her cute face so much! she found a blanket that my grandma peggy made for her when she was a baby and loves to sleep with it. grandma was so happy to hear it was getting good use! 

one sunday, cora was sick, so trevor had to stay home while shelby and i made it to church in time for the second hour. but it was ward conference that day-and sacrament meeting got out 45 minutes late! so what's a mom to do but take pictures. :) i got called into sunbeams when we moved in, and trevor was called a few weeks later to teach the 10 year old hoys. now i am in nursery since cora loves me and wants me with her all the time. just like her big sister did! i love nursery, so it's perfect. though i was sad to have to leave shelby's class. i love seeing her in action. she is the sweetest, smartest little sunbeam in the world! when she got to give the prayer in primary, she did such a good job and was SO cute that there was an audible "awwwww" from the teachers and kids after she finished. the girl loves to pray and takes it very seriously. seeing cora fold her little arms too makes me absolutely melt. 

only a few weeks left before my big girl is a ctr 4!!! 

here's my little blonde butterfly, playing with one of her favorite toys. things that make noise are high on her favorites list at the moment. she loves to push the same button over and over to see if she can break me. just kidding. i don't even hear those toys anymore. as long as there isn't crying, it's all just music to my ears. 

oh funny girl: shelby likes to brush her teeth right there by the mirror and take time out to chat with "the other shelby in the mirror" they are buddies, and shelby likes to come tell me things that "the other shelby" tells her. such a crack up! 

what would it be like to have twins?!?

i took this picture to remind me about these fun days with my kids where they love to be in the same room with me at ALL TIMES. 

most of all this one. 

"hey mom- don't even think about even turning around without my permission!"

in tina fey's book bossypants, she wrote something that still makes me laugh and is so true!

she said that you know that your kid is the boss because they don't allow you to go the bathroom without them going with you. 

case in point. here's my little visitor, monitoring my bathroom breaks: 

she thinks i'm really funny. 

this one's a keeper. he took me to see the 5th and final (sniff sniff) twilight movie, as he has done with the 4 before! best husband ever. one of them he even saw twice in the theater. and he doesn't even make fun of them! he let's me do that. (those special effects! the acting! the sparkling!) i thought that i wouldn't like this one because the end of the 4th book was cray-cray, but i actually loved it. that fight scene they added was insanely awesome and made up for their super creepy cgi daughter. also, i loved the things they kept from the book, i felt like it was the closest to the books of any of the other movies. not that anyone asked for my review. 

sometimes, you just have to sit and cuddle with your kids. everything else can wait! 

also, i love my haircut. with the move and my selflessness (haha) laziness i had gone 6 whole months without a visit to the salon! yikes! aren't i so low maintenance? don't answer that. 

this is our favorite breakfast: pink bagels (strawberry bagels with strawberry cream cheese) 

we were on our way to dublin one last time...

so that we could say goodbye to our first house! 

all clean mom! no more stuff in here!

yipee! the house officially sold just before thanksgiving. 

it was long and complicated, but we are so happy with how it all turned out!

while i did one last walk through, shelby said she wanted to take some pictures. 

i love seeing things from her short perspective. 

i let myself get a little sentimental and teary. after all, it was our first home, where we brought both our newborns, where we lived for 4 years, the longest of anywhere in our marriage. 

we had birthday parties here and at the clubhouse, we had great neighbors and spent our holidays there. 

i became a mom here. 

but then i remembered that the place had a crazy ant problem and it was only 1850 square feet. 

peace out!